OKLAHOMA CITY — Even with all the talk of the tour industry being on the verge of collapse, there’s a host of massive, arena-scale tours set to roll into OKC this summer.
Skyrocketing gas and electrical prices, ticket fees and inflation, dwindling interest, and general apathy have all led to talk of the major musical touring game winding down, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the upcoming slate for our city’s (currently) biggest venue.
2023 saw practically the entire nationwide tour market eaten up by Taylor Swift’s earth-shaking “Eras Tour.” But, 2024 has a lot more breathing room across acts and artists looking for a piece of that ever-shrinking pop tour pie.
And having so many big acts on the circuit means that the Paycom Center is looking at a stacked summer season, sometimes even seeing back-to-back days of potentially major, worldwide-level acts.
It’s a banner year for an arena recently claimed by many to be too small and out-of-date, with proponents of the voter-approved “new arena” project often touting its necessity to bring in bigger and better concerts.
Not only does the Paycom Center’s concert slate look plenty big this summer, some even bigger arenas and bigger acts across the country have been struggling to sell tickets and fill their seats.
For example, Jennifer Lopez and The Black Keys were forced to fully cancel their upcoming arena tours in the face of low ticket sales and logistics.
Both of those tours were set to pass through Tulsa’s BOK Center, often seen as the slightly larger, potentially more lucrative competitor to the Paycom.
So maybe the Paycom Center is actually just the right size to balance cost, interest, and capacity right now in this age of struggling tours?
Only time will tell, of course, and it still remains to be seen just how successful these huge concert productions will be for OKC and its current arena this year.
But one thing is for certain right now: the Paycom Center’s summer lineup has something exciting for practically everyone.
Janet Jackson – Friday, July 26th
One of the biggest pop culture stars of her generation, the inimitable Ms. Jackson has been on a near-unrelenting cross-country trek since April of last year, taking her “Together Again” tour to practically every imaginable market in the US, Philippines, and Japan.
Her OKC stop on the 26th will be one of her final three in America before taking the show to Europe, and by that point, fans can expect a well-oiled machine of a performance that runs through nearly 40 (!) songs pulled from across an inarguably legendary career.
Olivia Rodrigo – Saturday, July 27th
The very next night, OKC audiences will get their shot at what may actually be the biggest tour of 2024 as pop-rock starlet Olivia Rodrigo crashes into town with her absolutely monster, entirely sold-out “Guts World Tour.”
Rodrigo seems to have recently taken the reins of unabashed, heart-on-sleeve girl-pop from Swift, and though seemingly nothing can or will come close to her “Eras Tour,” Rodrigo’s own massive, energetic stage spectacle has been this year’s can’t-miss ticket for the same demographic.
In fact, Rodrigo already brought the show through Dallas earlier this year, so it’s likely that a big portion of the OKC crowd will already be familiar and primed for all the excitement.
Featuring numerous costume and set changes, flying props, big moments of crowd interaction, and a healthy dose of cabaret theatricality and choreography mixed into all the pop-punk guitars and pressure-cooker angst, the “Guts World Tour” is the show to beat this summer.
Childish Gambino – Sunday, August 11th
Rapper/singer/writer/director/actor/dancer/iconoclast Donald Glover chose OKC to launch the newest tour for his alter ego, Childish Gambino.
Following in the tour kickoff footsteps of My Chemical Romance and the untouchable king of hip-hop that is Kendrick Lamar – both of whom opened their hugely anticipated tours here at the Paycom – Glover will be giving audiences their first-ever look at “The New World Tour,” right here in Oklahoma City.
It’s his first tour since the 2018-19 “This is America” trek, which took him around the world and saw him headline Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits, but never brought him through Oklahoma.
As is practically always the case with Childish Gambino, no one really knows what to expect yet.
The show is likely to be a mammoth multimedia head trip of hip-hop, funk, tribal electronica, and wild-eyed, body-contorting intensity, combining everything great about Glover’s music and his remarkable gift for performance.
Barry Manilow – Saturday, August 17th
It’s Barry Manilow.
Expect ballads galore, the softest of soft-pop crooning, and lots and lots of Barry Manilow fans.
Hozier – Thursday, September 26th
Yes, in Oklahoma, late September is still summer, and this stopover from one of the more surprising arena-level acts in recent memory is still considered part of the summer concert season.
The impassioned indie-folk-rock of singer/songwriter Hozier has struck a major chord with heady college kids and roots-rockers across the country that’s only grown since the inescapable radio success of “Take Me to Church” all the way back in 2013.
A lot of people may not even fully realize just how popular Hozier is at this point, but he’s consistently filling major arenas and selling out tours everywhere you look, which is admittedly pretty cool for a soul-belting guitar-rocker that’s largely avoided the pitfalls of overexposure and market saturation.
Strange as it may sound, if you’re not aware of his enduring popularity, expect this one to be maybe the biggest OKC show of the late summer season.
For more information, lineups, upcoming events, and tickets to all of these concerts and more, visit paycomcenter.com (where you’ll then be redirected to Ticketmaster, unfortunately, but what other choice do we have?)
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.